So you may have heard, Apple threw a little press event today. And while we won't get into all of the gritty details (our friends at Engadget have already done a pretty good job of that), we did want to highlight a few of the more exciting announcements related to the iPhone SDK:

• Apple has licensed Microsoft's ActiveSync technology to enable Exchange synchronization. That means Push email, calendar, and contacts.
• The iPhone SDK is available for free today to developers who want to create applications which can be run natively on the iPhone.
  
• Developers will have to pay $99 per year to have their items listed in the iPhone App Store. Apple will also take a 30% cut of any sales you make through the App Store.
• Users will be able to install 3rd party apps through iTunes or the App Store.
• Some of the applications demoed today include AOL Instant Messenger, a business tool from Salesforce.com, and several games including Spore. Yes, Spore.
  
• The iPhone 2.0 software that will let users run these 3rd party apps will be available as a free update in June.

One thing the iPhone SDK will not enable? Software that unlocks the iPhone so it can be used with different Wireless carriers. And that means that while there's now an official way for developers to get their software on the iPhone, there's at least one good reason that we still expect some lively updates from the iPhone hacking community.

Oh yeah, and the version 2.0 software will be available for the iPod Touch as well, but it won't be free. No price has been set yet.